CHAPTER VII ENGLISH AMERICA UNDER THE LATER STUART KINGS 1660-1688 FRICTION IN THE COLONIES person The resto ration of the Stuart Kings to the Eng lish throne. THE Puritan Republic in England did not long survive Cromwell's death in 1658, for in another year his incompetent son Richard, who had succeeded him, was forced to resign, and the experiment of the Commonwealth was at an end. In 1660, with the hearty approbation of the English people, the deposed Stuart line of kings was restored in the of Charles II, son of the beheaded Charles I. Just what was restored and what was not restored in England at this time is an interesting question. In general it may be said that the new King lacked many of the powers enjoyed by his father before 1640, and that Parliament retained the advantage which it had won. The Commonwealth was thoroughly discredited, and Cromwell's body was dug up from its grave in Westminster Abbey to be hanged in chains at Tyburn, where felons were executed. The inde pendent attitude of Mas sachusetts. In America the first colony to feel the effects of the new order was the Puritan Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which had enjoyed a respite from the interference of the Stuart Kings for twenty years. In the exercise of their liberty the men of Massachusetts had grown careless of the mother country's authority. They failed to apprehend the regicides, Whalley and Goffe, who as judges had voted in 1649 for the execution of Charles I and were known to be hiding in the colony; they refused to tolerate the Church of England in their midst, and for a long time refused a member of this church the right to vote. They persistently broke the English laws of trade, and in 1661 issued a Declaration of Rights against what they deemed to be the legislative encroachments of England. They even substituted for the English oath of allegiance a new oath of allegiance to Massachusetts alone. In resentment of this attitude the King in 1662 and 1663 granted liberal charters to Connecticut and Rhode Island respectively, that sachusetts. he might foster formidable rivals to the Massachusetts colony. Connecticut was enlarged to include the colony of New Haven and was extended on the west to the South Sea. Both ConnectiThe punishment of Mas- cut and Rhode Island were constituted corporate colonies, with powers almost equal to those of independent republics. War with Holland interrupted the King's design of administering further punishment to Massachusetts, but in 1676 he sent an investigator, Edward Randolph, to Boston, whose reports were decidedly unfavorable to the colony. In 1679 she was deprived of New Hampshire, which was made a separate royal colony, and in 1684 her own charter was rescinded by an English court and she herself became a royal colony. rebellion. extreme. Another influence of the English Restoration of 1660 was manifest in the increasing tyranny of Governor Berkeley in Virginia. Originally appointed as Governor by Charles I in 1642, Royalists in Virginia. temporarily deposed during the Commonwealth and Bacon's reappointed by Charles II, this sturdy Royalist ruled Virginia till 1677. His methods were arbitrary in the He kept the same House of Burgesses in office for fifteen years without reëlection, and he gave assent to laws which it passed imposing heavy taxes. Because of his private interest in the fur trade he refused to call out the militia against the Indians, when the latter took the warpath in the remote western settlements. This was more than the settlers could endure. Their only recourse was to take up arms for their own protection without the sanction of the governor. This they did under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon and saved their settlements from extinction at the hands of the savages. In the struggle that followed between the governor and the followers of Bacon, Jamestown was burned, Bacon died, and in the end the governor was triumphant. Referring to the severe cruelty with which Berkeley put down the rebellion, King Charles declared, "That old fool has taken away more lives in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father." The lesson of the rebellion was that the frontiersmen of America loved liberty and fair play, and that when denied these by their rulers they would take measures to secure them for themselves. In many respects the Cavalier Englishmen of Virginia differed. widely from the Puritan Englishmen of Massachusetts. A marked Education in royalist Virginia. difference was evident in the slight regard in which popular education was held in the southern colony. As late as 1671 Governor Berkeley wrote, "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing presses, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; learning has brought disobedience and heresy into the world and printing has divulged them and libels against the best government. God keeps us from both." NEW LAWS OF TRADE New com mercial interests in England. With the Restoration, new leaders and new commercial interests came to the front in England. The old religious and political questions, which had caused so many to emigrate to America in the first part of the century, although not yet entirely settled, were in part succeeded by new issues, chief among which were matters of trade. In Cromwell's time an ordinance had been passed which attempted to reserve the colonial trade to England alone, but in spite of the law the Dutch ships did not cease their trade with the English colonies. Three new acts on the subject, known as Navigation Laws, were passed soon after 1660. According to these laws, the leading American products, such as tobacco, sugar, cotton, indigo, rice, and furs, known as "enumerated commodities," might be sold only in England, and must be carried to this restricted market in ships owned by English subjects and manned by crews, three-fourths of whom were English subjects. The Americans were allowed to make their purchases, with few exceptions, only in England. It was the violation of these laws that constituted Massachusetts' chief offense, reported Edward Randolph, when he investigated the conduct of that colony for King Charles II. pay In making the new trade regulations England acted upon the theory that the good of the colonies should be subordinate to the welfare of the mother country. It was the expectation that The underunder them more gold would flow into England in ment for commodities than would go out, and that thereby England would be enriched. The harsh and inequitable working of these laws in the colonies, as time went on, ultimately called forth bitter resentment on the part of the Americans. lying principles of the new laws of trade. CONQUEST OF THE RIVAL TRADING POSTS OF THE DUTCH The English conquest of New Nether In the enforcement of the laws of trade the English were obliged to be on the constant lookout against the Dutch smugglers. Planted down in the Valley of the Hudson, between New England and the southern colonies, the traders of New Netherland were in the very best of situations to assist the English colonists in evading the restrictions on their trade. Charles II determined on vigorous measures. Nine years after the Dutch had annexed the Swedes, an English fleet suddenly swooped down on New land. |